AGE-DIFFERENCES IN INHIBITION - POSSIBLE CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES

The relations among age, inhibition, perceptual speed, susceptibility to interference, and working memory were examined in a sample of 301 a dults age 20 to 90. Younger adults were found to have more efficient i nhibitory mechanisms than were older adults. Significant inhibition, h owever, was found in all age groups, including the older age group. Ol der adults were also found to be more susceptible to interference from irrelevant information. There was a small negative relation between i nterference and inhibition, suggesting that participants with the most efficient inhibitory functioning may be the least susceptible to inte rference. Perceptual speed, an index of processing efficiency, was fou nd to mediate nearly all of the age-related variance in inhibition and interference. Interference, but not inhibition, was found to mediate some of the age-related variance in working memory.